CAN WE MAKE WATER IN THE OGALLALA?

Water conservation is generally driven two different ways, a visual direction and a linear direction. The visual approach is to make water easy to see by storing it in snow pack or surface reservoirs. The linear approach attempts to limit the amount of water that goes through a certain point in a water distribution system, regardless of whether it has a net effect on basin water use. Neither approach evaluates total basin water use based on data. This work examines how much water would be retained in the Ogallala by examining two potential policy choices. One is to evaluate how much additional water would remain in the southern Ogallala basin if surface water bodies were stored in the subsurface to avoid evaporation. The second is to evaluate how much additional water would remain in the basin if cropping practices were altered to limit evapotranspiration. These numbers are critical to evaluating alternative policies for developing sustainable practices for water supply.